Plesiosaurus Plush

Plesiosaurus Soft Toys

Everything Dinosaur has added two Plesiosaurus soft toys to the company’s extensive range of prehistoric animal plush. The soft and cuddly marine reptiles join the likes of Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex in a move that we think famous fossil finders like Mary Anning and William Conybeare would have approved of.

The Large Plesiosaurus Soft Toy

The large Plesiosaurus marine reptile soft toy.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Plesiosaur Family (Plesiosauridae)

As every budding, young palaeontologist will tell you, Plesiosaurs were not dinosaurs but marine reptiles. Plesiosaurus is the only genus in the family Plesiosauridae. During the 19th and 20th Centuries, a large number of long-necked marine reptile fossils were assigned to the Plesiosaur family. However, recent studies have led to a revision and several specimens that were once described as Plesiosaurus have been assigned to their own, separate genus. It was the pioneering English geologist William Conybeare who first coined the term Plesiosaurus. He used this term back in 1821 and went onto describe the almost complete Plesiosaurus skeleton yet discovered. This specimen had been found eroding out of the cliffs at Lyme Regis by Mary Anning. The term Plesiosaur pre-dates the term dinosaur as well as the first scientific description of a dinosaur (Megalosaurus in 1824).

Everything Dinosaur has its own Plesiosaurus family, as joining the large, Plesiosaurus is a very cute and adorable baby Plesiosaurus.

The Baby Plesiosaurus Soft Toy

The baby Plesiosaurus soft toy.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Plesiosaurus means “Near Lizard”

Plesiosaurus received its moniker as the academic establishment at the time concluded that it was more “lizard-like” than the recently discovered “fish lizard” Ichthyosaurus, a genus, which itself has seen a lot of revision.

The large Plesiosaurus soft toy measures fifty-three centimetres long from the tip of its nose down to the end of that stubby marine reptile tail. The smaller baby Plesiosaurus measures thirty-five centimetres in length. Everything Dinosaur is delighted to welcome these two new additions to its huge range of prehistoric animal soft toys.